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Friday, November 16, 2012

Historic Share Available: #14 First Issued in 1731

From The Book of trades, or Library of the useful arts. Part I. Published by Jacob Johnson, and for sale at his book-store in Philadelphia, and in Richmond Virginia. 1807

Learning the unique history associated with a particular share
is one of the more exciting aspects of becoming a shareholder in the Library
Company. Consider the biography of Share 14, first issued to Junto member Richard Standley, a successful potter by trade whose business was housed on Market
Street.In 1731, he appears in the Pennsylvania Gazette with an
advertisement seeking to recover a crooked servant who had absconded with a
black horse.Standley would lose
everything when his pottery burnt to the ground, but the tragedy would inspire
his brother, and next holder of the share, Valentine Standley to purchase some
of the colony’s earliest available fire insurance in 1753.By trade Valentine was a brewer, and on the
eve of the American Revolution he advertised that he made a “good Sixpenny Beer
. . . [and] the best middling and Fourpenny Beer.”

Next, Share 14 transferred to Samuel Anderson, a military
officer, physician, and politician.Anderson had an illustrious career in the navy, where he was named
assistant surgeon in 1799 by President Adams and then saw promotion to full
surgeon a year later.During the War of
1812 he formed the all-volunteer Mifflin Guards and ultimately rose to the rank
of lieutenant colonel.Not one to settle
for a single occupation, Anderson began serving as surgeon on the famous USS Hornet in 1824, at the same time that he
was serving as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives!He would ascend to the position of Speaker of
the House by 1833 and later find employment as Sheriff of Delaware County, customs
inspector, and justice of the peace.

Share 14 is available for purchase, as are a wealth of other
shares each with its distinctive company of past shareholders.If you are considering becoming a shareholder
of the Library Company or giving a share as a gift, let us help you find the
perfect share.Take your place in the
rich tradition of Library Company shareholding today!